Scottsdene residents have started a neighbourhood watch to keep their community safe and clean.
The residents living in the Pocket 2 site say they started patrolling because they feared gangsters have “captured” their community.
Pocket 2 Neighbourhood Watch chairman Neville Sampson said robbers hid in bushes along Bontebok Street behind 1st Avenue and preyed on schoolchildren walking to school and people trying to get to work.
The watch started in January last year but patrols petered out in September.
However they started again this Month to counter what residents say is a rise in gang crime in the area.
“We are not fully accredited, but we are getting our paperwork in order,” Mr Sampson said.
Watch members patrol daily from 5am to 7am and again from 7pm to 9pm. Those who don’t work keep an eye on the neighbourhood from their windows or stand on street corners.
“Sometimes it is not very safe to patrol in our community, and we get a little support from the police,” Mr Sampson said.
The watch uses a WhatsApp group to keep members informed about goings-on in the neighbourhood.
At the weekend, some residents and watch members cleared bushes and illegal dumping from an open field along Bontebok Street and Da Gama Street.
Mr Sampson said hoped more people would join the watch. Members paid for their own reflector vests and torches, he said.